Did Amanda Knox get a fair trial?

Lawyers for Washington college student Amanda Knox plan to appeal her conviction by an Italian court for the murder and rape of her British housemate, Meredith Kercher. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Washington) maintains the trial was tainted by anti-American bias, and has asked Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to intervene. Clinton says she will listen to anyone with concerns about the case. The prosecutor, Giuliano Mignini, says Knox and her former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were convicted on solid evidence, and that American critics should stop meddling in Italian justice. Did Amanda Knox get a fair trial? (Watch a CNN report about Amanda Knox's sentencing by an Italian court)

No, Italian prosecutors are corrupt: "There is little to no physical evidence linking Knox to the murder," says Melinda Henneberger in Politics Daily. She's only in jail because Italian authorities couldn't bring themselves to abandon their bogus claim that Kercher died in a kinky attack by Knox, Sollecito, and a drifter named Rudy Guede, who was convicted last year and made a partial confession. It's not the first time Italian prosecutors have trampled justice to make a political point.

"Amanda Knox: 'She-devil' or victim of anti-Americanism?"

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The trial was fair—it's U.S. critics who are biased: The Americans who are so upset over Amanda Knox's conviction and 26-year sentence didn't sit and listen to the testimony, says Beppe Severgnini in Italy's Corriere della Sera (Google Translate version). "It is inconceivable that the jurors" would send someone to prison "if they had a reasonable doubt." But some in the U.S. just assume that "a girl so pretty, and what's more American, cannot be guilty."

"I verdetti fai-da-te e quel tifo Usa sbagliato"

An anti-American jury wouldn't have convicted Knox's Italian boyfriend: It doesn't make sense to chalk up Amanda Knox's conviction to anti-Americanism, says Harmon Leon in True/Slant. Her Italian former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, was convicted, too. And "a murder weapon was found with Amanda Knox’s blood on it," so a U.S. jury probably would have reached the same verdict.

"The Amanda Knox defense and Italian porn stars"

Knox was convicted by Italy's press before her trial began: The Knox case is "a cautionary tale," says Judy Bachrach in The Women on the Web. In Italy, you're presumed guilty, and if you're an outsider without powerful friends, "you're sunk." Amanda Knox was condemned as a she-devil "with an angel's face" before her trial began. In the end, the facts—including the pesky detail that the knife she allegedly used to kill Kercher didn't match the wounds—didn't matter.

"Did Amanda Knox do it?"